Suspicion over dead birds at Parliament House

The World Today - Wednesday, 29 October , 2003 12:30:19

Reporter: Matt Brown

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Now briefly back to the Federal Parliament, where the mystery of dead birds and Bogong moths has prompted an investigation into the way a common pesticide may be affecting native wildlife.

The regular Bogong moth migration over Canberra often has politicians and workers in Parliament House wondering at how the flying creatures can sneak into even the most closed-up corner, but the minor nuisance has become a deadly serious issue.

In the Senate this morning, it emerged that a program to kill off the moths may be taking the lives of the Currawong birds that frequent the grounds. Now there's even talk of holding autopsies on the birds to get to the bottom of the mystery, as Matt Brown reports from Canberra.

MATT BROWN: When you walk out into the courtyards at Parliament House, you can normally hear the birdsong of Currawongs. They also try and pinch your morning tea. Sometimes, you'd think they run the place, but this morning there are none to be seen.

Dead Bogong moths squelch underfoot and some of our politicians are asking if this silent Spring is the result of deliberate poisoning.

PAUL CALVERT: Order. Over the past week 10 Currawongs or so have been found dead around Parliament House. This was following an external spraying program to control a Bogong moth infestation.

MATT BROWN: The pesticide in use is called Cislin 10, a product which contains the pyrethroid, Deltamethrin. If you took a very high dose, you might go into a coma, but the way it's used around Parliament House against the little Bogong is designed, in gardener parlance, to "stir and deter".

It's not good news for the moths but the President of the Senate, Paul Calvert, says it hasn't seemed to be a problem for bird life in the past.

PAUL CALVERT: This spraying regime has been conducted in previous years without any adverse effects on birds of which the Department is aware.

MEG LEES: This is in fact at least double the number of bird deaths that are ever found in any particular week and that the birds still have not returned.

MATT BROWN: The Local Government Minister, Ian Campbell, is worried the dead birds have left nests of baby birds without protection.

IAN CAMPBELL: Having been around the environments of Parliament House over the last couple of weeks and witnessed the normal cacophony of the songs of the various species of bird that make Parliament House their home from time to time, it was a fairly deafening silence that we were met with earlier this week.

PAUL CALVERT: The New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service has recently reported that arsenic has been found in Bogong moths in the Australian Alps and they are actively seeking to discover the source of the arsenic.

MATT BROWN: And in Canberra, special avian autopsies are being planned.

PAUL CALVERT: I have directed that that if any more dead birds are found they will be sent to a laboratory for pathology tests to determine what killed them. In addition, Bogong moths at Parliament House will be collected and tested to see if they contain arsenic.

(sound of vacuum cleaner)

In the courtyards of Parliament, workers are busy filling garbage bags full of Bogong moths with an industrial sized vacuum cleaner.

CLEANER: Aw, yesterday, we did three-and-a-half garbage bags nearly full of dead moths and that was just in the plant rooms in Parliament House.

MATT BROWN: Just in the machinery sort of rooms in Parliament?

CLEANER: Yup.

MATT BROWN: And that's inside Parliament?

CLEANER: That's inside Parliament, yeah.

MATT BROWN: Compared to the moths, the Currawongs are loaded with charisma - something in short supply in Parliament House - and the Bogongs have few real friends.

But Greens Senator, Bob Brown, says the mystery of the dead birds should be resolved by removing the doubt and ending the spraying program altogether.

BOB BROWN: Some people find their presence discomforting. I delight in it; absolutely delight in it. Here's one of the great natural phenomenons of this country. The bird…the moths migrate in their millions each year. They're attracted to light.

We set this great Parliament on top of a hill, light it up at night, the moths naturally – it's part of the natural system – come into Parliament House, they see it as a beacon and the reaction is, from we human beings, we'll poison them.